One-Step Plasma Jet Deposition and Self-Sintering of Gold Nanoparticle Inks on Low-Temperature Substrates

Flexible electronics on low-temperature substrates like paper are very appealing for their use in disposable and biocompatible electronic applications and areas like healthcare, wearables, and consumer electronics. Plasma-jet printing uses a dielectric barrier discharge plasma to focus aerosolized nanoparticles onto a target substrate. The same plasma can be used to change the properties of the printed material and even sinter
in situ
. In this work, we demonstrate one-step deposition of gold structures onto flexible and low-temperature substrates without the need for thermal or photonic post-processing. We also explore the plasma effect on the deposition of the gold nanoparticle ink. The plasma voltage is optimized for the sintering of the gold nanoparticles, and a simple procedure for manufacturing traces with increased adhesion and conductivity is presented, with a peak conductivity of 6.2 x10
⁵
S/m. PJP-printed gold LED interconnects and microheaters on flexible substrates are developed to demonstrate the potential of this single-step sintered deposition of conductive traces on low-temperature substrates.